2 Kings 12:4–12

The Temple to Be Repaired

⁴Then Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the sacred things ^awhich is brought into the house of the Lord, in current money, both ^bthe money of each man’s assessment and all the money ¹which any man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the Lord,

⁵let the priests take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the ¹damages of the house wherever any damage may be found.”

⁶But it came about that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash ^athe priests had not repaired the damages of the house.

⁷Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests and said to them, “Why do you not repair the damages of the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but pay it for the damages of the house.”

⁸So the priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the house.

⁹But ^aJehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money which was brought into the house of the Lord.

¹⁰When they saw that there was much money in the chest, ^athe king’s scribe and the high priest came up and tied it in bags and counted the money which was found in the house of the Lord.

¹¹They gave the money which was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they ¹paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the Lord;

¹²and ^ato the masons and the stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the damages to the house of the Lord, and for all that was ¹laid out for the house to repair it.